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For the first time in his second term, President Trump is imposing new sanctions, but they may not shift the course of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Oct. 23, 2025Updated 5:44 p.m. ET
President Trump has long threatened new sanctions against Russia for refusing to countenance a cease-fire in Ukraine, but he had not put any in place during his second term until now. On Wednesday the United States blocked transactions around the world involving Russia’s two largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil. The European Union imposed new sanctions on Russian energy on Thursday.
Global oil prices rose more than five percent on that news, which could prompt some of Russia’s major customers, particularly in India, to quit buying Russian oil.
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia called the new sanctions “an unfriendly act.” He also warned of an overwhelming response if Kyiv gets the powerful U.S. missiles it seeks to be able to strike deeper into Russian territory.
The U.S. Treasury Department said that it was targeting the two oil companies because they generate revenue for Moscow’s “war machine.” In addition, Europe decided on Thursday to ban by 2027 all purchases of liquefied natural gas from Russia, which generates billions of dollars annually.
Still, as with repeated earlier rounds of sanctions, there was no immediate indication that the Kremlin would be deterred from continuing the war, even as Russia faces deepening economic problems.
Why are the new sanctions coming now?
The pendulum of President Trump’s attitude toward Russia has swung widely in the last week. On Oct. 16, he announced that he would soon hold a summit with Mr. Putin in Budapest, and then abruptly canceled it and announced the new sanctions on Wednesday.
They are the most direct punitive measures that Washington has taken against Russia since Mr. Trump returned to the presidency in January, and among the most stringent moves against the energy industry since the war started in February 2022.
After imposing a cease-fire agreement in Gaza this month, Mr. Trump hoped for a repeat in the war in Ukraine. But Russia has rejected a cease-fire as the first step, sticking to its demand that Ukraine concede territory that the Russian military has been unable to win on the battlefield, and wants an end to efforts by Ukraine to forge economic and military alliances with the West.
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Mr. Trump’s summit meeting with Mr. Putin in Alaska in August produced no tangible results. Then the White House announced on Tuesday that the president was canceling another meeting and imposing sanctions. Mr. Trump expressed annoyance with Mr. Putin. “Every time I speak with Vladimir, I have good conversations, and then they don’t go anywhere,” he told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday.
What effect will these sanctions have on Russia?
Mr. Putin said on Thursday that the sanctions against the Russian oil giants would hurt the country’s economy, but not substantially. “This is an unfriendly act toward Russia, and it doesn’t strengthen relations between Russia and the United States that only began to get restored,” Mr. Putin told reporters. “But no self-respecting country and no self-respecting people ever decide anything under pressure.”
The sanctions strike at two Russian oil companies with a global reach, as well as more than 30 of their subsidiaries, including numerous refining companies. Oil and gas sales constitute about one-fourth of Russia’s annual government budget, and the oil industry is already under stress from increasingly sophisticated long-range strikes by Ukraine.
Previous sanctions have targeted other aspects of the energy sector, including the so-called shadow tanker fleet, used to move oil on international vessels whose origins are obscured, to evade U.S. and European sanctions.
Nothing proved especially damaging, and analysts predict a muted impact this time, too. Russian companies have long been preparing for the ratcheting-up of sanctions, said Tatiana Stanovaya, the founder of the political analysis firm R.Politik. Mr. Putin remains willing to bear enormous losses to accomplish his aims, she added.
The war has become the defining element in his legacy. While Russia has gained several thousand square kilometers this year, that represents just inches on the map, and fighting is a bloody slog, with the overall death toll estimated at more than 200,000 Russians.
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Although harsh repression has silenced most opposition, Mr. Putin has put the economy on a war footing, and he appears loathe to end the fighting until he can claim more territory for Russia and assert greater control over Kyiv.
What comes next?
Ukraine is seeking Tomahawk cruise missiles from the United States to strike deeper into Russia, with Mr. Putin threatening a harsh response. Some analysts question whether the Tomahawk could really tip the military balance, given their high cost and the number needed to make any difference militarily.
The imposition of new sanctions came in tandem with European Union leaders delaying until December whether to use Russian assets frozen in Europeas collateral for a loan to the Kyiv government worth 140 billion euros ($163 billion). The money would help to make up for cuts in U.S. aid. Some could go toward the purchase of the Tomahawks.
With winter fast approaching, the fighting in Ukraine will likely slow for months. When it comes to pushing a cease-fire, Mr. Trump could always change his mind again.
Reporting was contributed by Anton Troianovski, Ivan Nechepurenko, Stanley Reed, Jeanna Smialek and Alex Travelli.
Neil MacFarquhar has been a Times reporter since 1995, writing about a range of topics from war to politics to the arts, both internationally and in the United States.
